Five Air France workers arrested for attacking directors

Paris: Five Air France workers suspected of attacking company directors, a week after staff ripped off executives’ shirts in a protest over job cuts, were arrested on Monday.

Police arrived at the homes of four suspects, identifying them from footage of airline staff, for allegedly forcing their way into a directors’ meeting where 2,900 redundancies were being announced, The Guardian reported.

Another suspect was reportedly arrested later and officers said more arrests could follow. The five men reportedly work for Air France’s cargo and freight wing.

Pictures of strikers storming the meeting went viral on October 5.

As members of the executive committee met to discuss plans to restructure the loss-making airline, furious staff set upon two human resource directors, shredding their jackets and shirts and leaving one scrambling over a wire fence bare-chested apart from his tie.

A total of seven people – five Air France staff and two police officers – were injured, one of them seriously, in the unprecedented scenes at the airline’s headquarters near Charles de Gaulle airport outside Paris.

At least 10 legal complaints have been lodged by six security staff, three company directors and Air France.